Peer Rejection and Unpopularity: Associations With GPAs Across the Transition to Middle School

The unique effects of peer rejection and unpopularity on student GPAs across the transition from elementary school to middle school were investigated with a sample of 901 students followed longitudinally from 4th grade through 8th grade. Two types of longitudinal models, a cross-lagged panel model and a piecewise growth model, were used, with peer-nominated rejection and unpopularity and GPAs derived from school records. The cross-lagged panel model assessed the over-time directionality of the association between GPAs and peer status. It revealed that peer rejection preceded lower GPAs within 4th grade and across the transition from elementary to middle school, whereas lower GPAs predicted greater peer rejection from 4th to 5th grade. In contrast, unpopularity predicted higher GPAs across the transition from elementary to middle school. The piecewise growth model demonstrated that student GPAs declined in middle school and that peer rejection was associated with lower concurrent GPAs in both school settings, whereas unpopularity was associated with higher concurrent GPAs in middle school. Peer rejection and unpopularity in the last grade of elementary school were also predictive of GPA in the first grade of middle school above and beyond the effects of concurrent rejection and unpopularity. The results demonstrate how 2 forms of low peer status are associated with GPAs during this period of significant change in the social and academic lives of students.